Posted
by
samzenpus
on Sunday May 11, 2014 @08:27AM
from the to-the-hacking-station dept.

ClownP (1315157) writes in with this story about a hacker who did some of his work while aboard a nuclear aircraft carrier. "
A former sailor assigned to a US nuclear aircraft carrier and another man have been charged with hacking the computer systems of 30 public and private organizations, including the US Navy, the Department of Homeland Security, AT&T, and Harvard University.
Nicholas Paul Knight, 27, of Chantilly, VA, and Daniel Trenton Krueger, 20, of Salem, IL, were members of a crew that hacked protected computers as part of a scheme to steal personal identities and obstruct justice, according to a criminal complaint unsealed earlier this week in a US District Court in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The gang, which went by the name Team Digi7al, allegedly took to Twitter to boast of the intrusions and publicly disclose sensitive data that was taken. The hacking spree lasted from April 2012 to June 2013, prosecutors said."

“Essentially I am in trouble for posting all of the stuff on Twitter,”

You're in trouble for bragging about it. It's amazing how many criminals get caught because they can't keep their mouth shut. To me that seems like Crime 101. The first rule of black hat hacking is you don't talk about black hat hacking.

Yes, but how else will I plot the current advancement of human information conveyance systems if not by spreading previously unknown information and tracking its spread? How else will I map the information hierarchy and determine my next move?

True. But professionally, like, "Led or participated in X Blue Team and Y Red Team reviews, resulting in discovery and remediation of z exploitable weaknesses." That's not bragging. If you sound like you're bragging, your credibility is diminished.

That's not bragging. If you sound like you're bragging, your credibility is diminished.

It's bragging dressed up in a different way. Yes, people in a professional environment are sensitive to the manner in which you boast about your accomplishments, but at a fundamental level, companies and individuals get hired or not based on what they choose to boast about.

Kids call it bragging, Pros call it their portfolio, and corporations call it posting their success stories and case studies (which Market

I need people with good assembler skills. REALLY good assembler skills. The kind of people who can look at some asm code and spot the "odd bits" that don't "belong", so they know where to put the crowbar.

There is exactly one kind of people who have that kind of skill. Or, as a friend put it, there's two kind of people that apply here. The ones with a police record, and the good ones.

There is exactly one kind of people who have that kind of skill. Or, as a friend put it, there's two kind of people that apply here. The ones with a police record, and the good ones.

No, no, no, you've got it all wrong. Very few black hats have chops. What white hats have is restraint. By and large, they're script kitties... as in utilizing a script kit, and it takes no skill to run a script. (yeah, I know everyone else says "script kiddies" because they think they're young... NOPE... script kitties are OLD and LAZY. The actual kids have WAY more skills than script kitties,... its ridiculous!).

I need people with good assembler skills. REALLY good assembler skills. The kind of people who can look at some asm code and spot the "odd bits" that don't "belong", so they know where to put the crowbar.

Then what you want is an early 80's cracker (or programmer). DId everything in assembly. And

That's exactly it. Most people who are in jail talk themselves into it. These guys were stupid.That said, it's the black-hat hackers and criminals in general who don't engage in bravado are the ones you need to worry about.

The US also has a bunch of commissioned diesel-powered ships that can carry and operate aircraft (Osprey-class). They are called amphibious transport warships, and have a displacement similar to that of WWII carriers. So the sarcasm is a little over the top.

No. It is not. An aircraft carrier is a very specific type of ship and the US has none that are not nuclear powered. You don't call a Coast Guard ship that has a helicopter on it an aircraft carrier. Nor would you call a private yacht or corporate vessel with a helicopter an aircraft carrier. You said it yourself, the diesel ships with Osprey's are amphibious transports.

Sensationalism. Propaganda. We'll be sure to think of the children as ew teach the tairists a lesson.

Think about it.

Knight was an active duty enlisted member of the Navy assigned to the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. He worked as a systems administrator in the carrier's nuclear reactor department. He is accused of conducting some of his unlawful hacking while aboard.

''Essentially I am in trouble for posting all of the stuff on Twitter,''Knight told ABC News by email in his first interview. ''Although a lot of people are saying I was the leader of some crime organizations that was out to get people which wasn't true. Just a group of people that were dumb and did dumb things.''

In criminal information filed Monday, prosecutors allege that while Knight served in the Navy as a systems administrator in the nuclear reactor department of the USS Harry S. Truman, he was also leading a double life as a self-proclaimed ''nuclear black hat'' and the leader of a hacking group called Team Digi7al that stole or attempted to steal confidential or private information and post it online.

After the attacks, the group then bragged about their accomplishments on Twitter, with Knight acting as the main ''publicist,'' according to the Department of Justice.

The court filing noted that three alleged members of the group were minors when they joined.

Prosecutor Ryan Souders, who is involved in the case, told ABC News that generally when a suspect is charged in a criminal information filing, rather than an indictment, that means the defense has indicated they will not contest the charges.

In the United States, prosecutors have the job of sensationalizing in order to get a conviction and longer sentences. They are spinning a story they design out of the facts, so they pick the facts which make someone seem as guilty as possible and of as big a crime as possible.

The defense attorney's job is to whittle that down. The jury has the job of guessing the truth from two competing false narratives (the prosecution and the defense). Only the judge can ask witnesses questions impartially, and he or

Guy was a 3rd class, prolly the ink was barely dry on his promotion to 2nd class, then busted to 3rd out the door. TIR start of April 2011, enlisted 2009 He wasn't a "system administrator", he was cleaning the dust bunnies out of the computers.

Really, they were hacking on the aircraft carrier? Hacking what? Would be funny if a system failed so catastrophically they had to have sailors on board actually patch and recompile on the spot, and even if they were just innocently hacking away at a recalcitrant build-script for their photomanager or something it would still be cool, right?At least that was what I thought when I read the headline. Imagine my surprise to find out this is actually a story about crime-on-the-internet and has othing to do with